BIP-110 Bypassed: Bitcoin Image Embedding Experiment Challenges Core Limitations Assertion

Slovak Bitcoin developer Martin Habovštiak embeds a 66KB TIFF image file into the Bitcoin blockchain to broadcast a single continuous transaction without using the main limitations of the BIP-110 proposal. This demo directly challenges the core claim of BIP-110 proponents: restricting the aforementioned scripting capabilities effectively prevents arbitrary data from being embedded in the Bitcoin network.

Technical details of the proof of concept

What makes Habovštiak’s demonstration technically argumentative is that it strictly avoids all the main mechanisms by which the BIP-110 is designed to be limited:

No OP_RETURN:BIP-110 limits OP_RETURN output to 83 bytes, but this embedding does not rely on this opcode at all

No Taproot: Transactions use SegWit v0 (instead of Taproot), bypassing BIP-110’s restrictions on Taproot-related big data functions

No OP_IF: OP_IF command is not used, which is one of the targets of the BIP-110 limitation

The transaction has been publicly verified on the Bitcoin blockchain, and its raw hexadecimal data can be decoded into standard TIFF format and opened by common image software. The image content is an image of Luke Dashjr, developer of Bitcoin Knots and a core advocate for BIP-110.

Habovštiak made it clear that he would not disclose the code in question to avoid triggering large-scale NFT-like activity on Bitcoin. He also explained that the motivation for this move is not to encourage on-chain data, but to respond to what he believes is the “lie” spread by the Knots camp: “What I hate more than spam is lies.”

Background on BIP-110 and Advocate’s Response

BIP-110 was first proposed in October 2025 under the name BIP-444 and was actively advocated by developers such as Luke Dashjr after Bitcoin Core v30 lifted the OP_RETURN data limit. The core content of the proposal includes: a temporary soft fork for a year, limiting OP_RETURN output to 83 bytes, limiting a single data push to 256 bytes, and restricting other scripting functions that support big data storage.

Currently, the number of nodes supporting BIP-110 accounts for about 8.8% of Bitcoin’s full nodes, and it is fully through Bitcoin Knots - the number of Knots nodes has grown nearly tenfold since the beginning of 2025.

Dashjr responded on X by stating that Habovštiak’s transaction was “not continuous and does not contain continuous images,” disputeing the description of “continuous embedding.” But in its published technical note, Habovštiak included detailed guidance for independent verification, stating that the raw hexadecimal data was indeed continuously decoded into a complete image.

The BIP-110 compliant version is even bigger: core irony

The most illustrative finding from this demo was the additional BIP-110 compliant version produced by Habovštiak – a picture embed transaction that strictly adheres to all the limitations of BIP-110 and is validated in Bitcoin Knots’ regtest test environment.

The results showed that the BIP-110 compliant version had a larger transaction volume than the original unrestricted version. Habovštiak believes that this result shows that BIP-110’s restriction mechanism can be counterproductive in practice—it not only fails to effectively prevent data embedding, but may also increase the space occupied by the same amount of data on the chain, contrary to the goals declared by the proposer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the core objective of the BIP-110 proposal?

BIP-110 aims to prevent arbitrary non-monetary data (such as images, NFTs, etc.) from occupying a large amount of Bitcoin block space by limiting specific Bitcoin scripting functions (OP_RETURN output limit of 83 bytes, single data push limit of 256 bytes, etc.).

Did Habovštiak’s demonstration technically really “overturn” the BIP-110?

The demonstration technically proves that 66KB of data can still be embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain without using OP_RETURN, Taproot, and OP_IF. This directly challenges the argument that “restricting these features prevents data embedding.” Dashjr has a debate over the definition of whether a transaction constitutes a “continuous” embedding, and the technical debate has not yet reached a consensus in the community.

What is the difference between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots?

Bitcoin Core is a mainstream client implementation of Bitcoin, maintained by a broad community of developers, and tends to reduce restrictions on data types; Bitcoin Knots is an alternative client maintained by Luke Dashjr that incorporates additional filtering rules that are not adopted by Core, including BIP-110. With approximately 8.8% of nodes currently running Bitcoin Knots, the two camps are fundamentally divided on which data types should be allowed on the Bitcoin network.